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The Fifth Race Quest

Thank you for doing the math for us. :)

[] Increase Creep
[] Evolve 3 Drones (Costs 1 RP and 3 Larvae)
[] Organize Militia (Costs 1 RP)
[] Research Zerg Tenaments (0/100)
 
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Nervaqus987
Kerrigan style infestations require several major things, one of which being that the person undergoing the transformation have exceptional will. (i.e. be a named character) Right now there is no path you can purposefully pursue that will take you to that ability. You can only build yourself such that when such an opportunity comes along you do not miss it.
 
Reminds me as I wasn't sure, how much do the creep producing tumors continue to buff creep growth after the turn they're created in?
 
Xilph I wasn't planning to have them buff after the the turn they're applied. It was my intention that only actual buildings would influence creep growth on a multi-month scale.

For some reason down the 3 creep column that seems to be matching up, but the last column it doesn't...
 
For some reason down the 3 creep column that seems to be matching up, but the last column it doesn't...
I wasn't sure, as on the one hand we are producing buildings which produce extra creep so unless they die off they should provide some kind of boost to the creep, on the other hand they'd be less effective than the creep itself as they can only produce around them.
For some reason down the 3 creep column that seems to be matching up, but the last column it doesn't...
The last column relied on the boost from tumors remaining, without that then every column can just be treated as using that many increase creep actions every turn.

I wonder how well this quest will scale though? I mean even just taking our local area, in 8 turns we hit the river with creep without any buffs to growth speed, assuming each tile is 1km across, at that point we'd be getting 66 RP per turn from creep which based off the current costs seems like a huge amount. However we're meant to expand to an interplanetary scale which means some mechanics would likely need generalizing and stepping back, you'd earn about half a billion RP per turn per earth sized planet for example, even if it would take about 40000 turns without any buffs, but I suspect even just by the time we hit cities we'll have gotten some ways to buff creep growth. Set up tumors at a distance perhaps?

Of course the big thing will be working on extracting and harnessing the ancient gene, because we don't need to become active as the Zerg, we just need enough samples to find and replicate it and if anyone can do that out of the options it is the Zerg.
 
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[X] Increase Creep
[X] Evolve 3 Drones (Costs 1 RP and 3 Larvae)
[X] Organize Militia (Costs 1 RP)
[X] Research Zerg Tenaments (0/100)
 
Nervaqus987
Kerrigan style infestations require several major things, one of which being that the person undergoing the transformation have exceptional will. (i.e. be a named character) Right now there is no path you can purposefully pursue that will take you to that ability. You can only build yourself such that when such an opportunity comes along you do not miss it.
We need to eat some Goa'ould to unlock it, don't we? That's how the Zerg work, right?

Anyway, how about adding people to the hive mind the way our fellowed NROB(Non-Random Omnipotent Being)-ees?

Does our character feel the same general apathy toward the loss of those two people that got eaten as the thread does? Can our 2998 citizens sense that through the hive mind?

Also, Xilph, how does the nerf on the creep growth action affect the math?
 
Also, Xilph, how does the nerf on the creep growth action affect the math?
What nerf? My numbers were accurate as of posting, 1 RP/turn rounded up per km^2 of creep with 0.56km initial radius, +0.5km radius base increase, and +0.33km radius increase per increase creep action.
 
Really? I thought it was .5 km of creep per action before.
 
- Creep is really good. It's amazing. We want more of it. Everyone seems to be in agreement about that.

- Drones are better than work crews. Making as many as possible is a good idea. (Improved Drones are even better than drones.)

- Militias ... I don't want unmixed militias. I want combined forces, with zerg and human warriors developing joint tactics which work together. I want zerglings ASAP, and mixed militia parties once that happens.

- Tenaments cost 100 EP, and that would take 3 turns to reach, or 5 if we have to start from 0. IMHO that means starting from 0 is not that big a change. Improved Drones costs 50, we have 50, so that can happen right now -- and we can benefit from improved drones by making 3 drones immediately.

- Tenaments are still a good idea, and they're my NEXT build choice. But not right now. Right now, we want to kick the exponential expansion ball as hard as possible, and that means Improved Drones.

- The only choice I'm waffling about here is Scouting Parties vs. Militia. Like I said above, I would prefer to wait on Militia until some zerg units come on line. But... this is a deathworld, and that means we might not be allowed to expand in peace... sitting still is dangerous. IMHO it's even more dangerous to walk around blind. Scouting Parties give us map information, which informs both our need for defenses, and our assimilation opportunities. Finally, while it won't tell us about resource veins, it will tell us where we can safely send our (improved) drones, and that means not losing drones.

- - -

[X] Increase Creep
[X] Organize Scouting Parties (Costs 1 RP)
[X] Evolve 3 Drones (Costs 1 RP and 3 Larvae)
[X] Research Improved Drones (50/50)
 
Winged One
This is a primitive human, they will be sad at the losses, but not horrified as we would be. They came from a time and place with horrendous infant mortality rates and maternity mortality rates, and where infections and illness wiped out entire tribes in a matter of weeks. It's not fun, but they are nowhere near as shocked by death as we are. That being said they aren't simply going to ignore it. But depending on what gets developed/researched will flavor how I write their thoughts on dealing with it.
 
Winged One
This is a primitive human, they will be sad at the losses, but not horrified as we would be. They came from a time and place with horrendous infant mortality rates and maternity mortality rates, and where infections and illness wiped out entire tribes in a matter of weeks. It's not fun, but they are nowhere near as shocked by death as we are. That being said they aren't simply going to ignore it. But depending on what gets developed/researched will flavor how I write their thoughts on dealing with it.
So they'll care enough to put a stop to it if we raise a militia and begin evolving central housing?
 
[X] Evolve 3 Drones (Costs 1 RP and 3 Larvae)
[X] Organize Militia (Costs 1 RP)
[X] Organize Work Crews
[X] Research Zerg Tenaments (0/100) - +50
 
So they'll care enough to put a stop to it if we raise a militia and begin evolving central housing?

No, more like... If you raise a militia they'll use them to create a watch around the camps that have had attacks before so they can evacuate civilians. Not going to try and fight them off with little more than pointy sticks, but if a fight starts... Anyways if you get scouts they'll automatically use them to map the nearest monster dens (within 2km of a camp) and try to move camps out of the obvious hunting grounds of those dens. If you build housing, well that solves most of the problems straight up so why worry about it. If all you did was expand the creep than they'd justify that with better resources they can solve the problem more easily, arm better guards, etc...

The quest will always go where the players send it. But everything will always be rationalized from the main character's perspective in a human, or rather Zerg, way.
 
No, more like... If you raise a militia they'll use them to create a watch around the camps that have had attacks before so they can evacuate civilians. Not going to try and fight them off with little more than pointy sticks, but if a fight starts... Anyways if you get scouts they'll automatically use them to map the nearest monster dens (within 2km of a camp) and try to move camps out of the obvious hunting grounds of those dens. If you build housing, well that solves most of the problems straight up so why worry about it. If all you did was expand the creep than they'd justify that with better resources they can solve the problem more easily, arm better guards, etc...
Neat.

It sounds like scouts might be more effective at keeping our people safe than a militia would be, at least until such time as we can arm our militia with better tech.
 
Yeah. And honestly, personal equipment isn't really a strength of our tech tree. Humans would most likely be best used telling the proper zergs what to do, or for diplomacy with humans. Although zerg cavalry sounds pretty great too.

I still think centralizing our housing and getting people used to having zerg stuff involved in their lives is a better use of our EP than mutating our drones, though.

[X] Increase Creep
[X] Organize Scouting Parties (Costs 1 RP)
[X] Evolve 3 Drones (Costs 1 RP and 3 Larvae)
[X] Research Zerg Tenaments (0/100)
 
I still think centralizing our housing and getting people used to having zerg stuff involved in their lives is a better use of our EP than mutating our drones, though.
I like getting an immediate benefit which is multiplied across our exponentially increasing number of Drones.

I do agree that Tenaments ought to be next, after we boost our Drones.
 
I like getting an immediate benefit which is multiplied across our exponentially increasing number of Drones.

I do agree that Tenaments ought to be next, after we boost our Drones.
If you want an immediate benefit, combat claws may well unlock a combat critter to deploy along with the militia. It's possible that we can gain extra EP income by killing things, as well.
 
If you want an immediate benefit, combat claws may well unlock a combat critter to deploy along with the militia. It's possible that we can gain extra EP income by killing things, as well.
That might be a good idea, depending on what the scouts find.

We certainly do want to kill stuff.
 
[X] Increase Creep
[X] Evolve 3 Drones (Costs 1 RP and 3 Larvae)
[X] Organize Militia (Costs 1 RP)
[X] Research Zerg Tenaments (0/100)
 
[X] Increase Creep
[X] Evolve 3 Drones (Costs 1 RP and 3 Larvae)
[X] Organize Militia (Costs 1 RP)
[X] Research Zerg Tenaments (0/100)
 
Vote Closed:
[X] Evolve 3 Drones - 12 votes
[X] Organize Militia - 10 votes
[X] Increase Creep - 9 votes

[X] Organize Work Crew - 3 votes
[X] Organize Scouting Parties - 2 votes

[X] Evolution Zerg Tenaments - 11 votes
[X] Improved Drones - 1 vote
 
Turn 1
'What is it!' Cried a panicked recruit at the sight of the giant menacing them. The great reptilian beast opened its long maw and in a single, seemingly impossible with its short stubby legs, lunge snapped up a man and woman that had only been trying to catch some fish in the river shallows.

'I don't know, and I don't care! Get those fishers out, we'll hold it off!' Ordered the older man that had been awarded the head of their small militia. In truth their sharpened poles were no match for the monster and they knew it, but at least they could annoy the creature and drive it off.

Of course the monster violently disagreed and snapped up one of his recruits right off the bat. Still they were a hardy and brave lot, they wouldn't let a few of their deaths get in the way of protecting the workers and the innocents. For several minutes they tried to exchange blows with the creature and came up short. Finally someone plucked up the courage and skill to chuck their spear straight into the creatures eye.

It screeched in pain and thrashed out, crushing another recruit in its ire. Nonetheless it had finally had enough and quickly disappeared back into the water of the Great River from which it came.

It's been a hard month as you try your best to absorb the skills that Myrddin is trying to teach you and juggle keeping people calm in the face of further monster attacks. There had been four separate instances of monster attack, the worst costing nine lives when an aquatic reptile attacked some fishermen by the Great River. Still the other attacks had cost sixteen lives, all to the damn great cats from the hill-lands, making it twenty-five for the month. Over four times those lost to illness and random injuries, six if you were curious.

There was a bit of a light in the darkness so to speak when thirty-one small minds entered the world and their minds connected to the hive for the first time. Only one died of complications, and thankfully it was late enough after birth that the mother was unaffected. You can only hope the numbers remain so good in the future.

Myrddin has been drilling you in numbers, addition and subtraction. Which is not to say that you could not count before, but what he teaches is so... formalized and theoretical. It's easy for you to understand one pepper, and adding two more peppers is more than either group alone, but making the logical leap to there being simply a one, and a two and together they make 3 even if it's not really 3 of anything at all is a bit hard to wrap your head around.

Early on you'd decided that your people needed protectors against the fauna of this new land and decided to train what Myrddin called a militia. You cut down the sticks they'd need and sharpened the sharp half yourself with your claws. Then each camp had contributed a small group and together they made up a hundred individuals. Well ninety-two with the recent monster attacks, but close enough. So far their grasp of discipline and fighting as a unit has come leaps and bounds, though they still tend to fall into a bit of a disorganized mess when the fight really gets going. That's okay, they're mostly fairly young, and they'll learn. It did cost a bit of your resources to make some light armored plates for them to sew into their shirts that help against the less than monstrous threats, but it was worth well worth it when they quickly drove the more annoying opportunistic animals out of the camps.

After that you focused on growing your creep. You're not entirely certain what it does or even is but it gets you the resources you need in your hatchery so making more of it would be a priority. Along the same veins you set your first three drones to evolving. It makes you almost giddy with anticipation to know that they'll soon be ready to go out and take on the world, so to speak.

Your understanding of the process of evolving a larvae also increases. Where as before you fumbled a bit in setting up the evolution order and spent a lot of time making certain everything was actually proceeding correctly, now you have better experience and confidence with the process. This means you can handle the logistics of more simultaneous evolutions.

---
Map of the Area. (On Dropbox.)

Important Status Updates:
Your drones are idle.
Due to improvements in animal pest control you've gained 18 'Agile Quadruped' bodies. This has given you +5 EP and started you on the road to understanding 'Agile Quadruped' bodies. Gather another forty-two bodies to unlock 'Evolution Agile Quadruped Bio-morph'.


Production:
Creep: 1.39 km Radius. (+0.5km Creep radius per turn.)
Resource Points - 4 (+7 per turn.)
Evolution Points - 20 (+20 per turn.)
Vespene Points - 20 (+0 per turn.)
Larvae - 15 (+12 per turn)


Activities: You have one month before the next turn. Pick 3 activities to engage in. (The same activity may be selected multiple times unless otherwise specified or lacking resources.)

[ ] Evolve Larvae (Costs Depend on Unit. Max 12 Larvae in a single action.)
Start building your army.

[ ] Increase Larvae Production
Using your Queen abilities you force the Hatchery to produce 6 more larvae this turn.

[ ] Increase Creep
You lay down creep tumors at strategic points around the hatchery, increasing creep growth by a .33km radius.

[ ] Organize Scouting Parties (Costs 1 RP)
Turn 100 villagers into five parties of twenty scouts. They can increase your understanding of the surroundings and mark important locations like Monster Dens. However they lack a drone's sensitivity for resource veins.

[ ] Organize Militia (Costs 1 RP)
It's simple right, cut off some sticks, sharpen half of them, and convince them to use the other half to beat each other senseless several hours a day in 'training' right? Can't be too hard to figure out.

[ ] Organize Work Crews
Turn 100 villagers into basic manual laborers. Can't exceed 1/3 of the populace due to their increased food needs. Crews will scour the nearby jungle for fallen wood and bring it back to the hatchery to convert into biomass. +1 Resource per turn per work crew.

[ ] Organize Dancing Troupe
Turn 40 villagers into professional dancers. They will increase morale in the village and give you a feather in your cap to show off to prospective allies. Helps to add to your overall culture, an indefinable thing that may be to your advantage or detriment in the long run, but is uniquely you.

[ ] Search Populace for Talented Individuals
They may unlock new options, or just handle being delegated to well and therefore open up more activities per turn. Has 70% chance of failure and 10% chance of producing a specialist.

Drone Orders: Pick 1 for each drone. To assign the drone in perpetuity to an action simply add the keyword 'Dedicated' to the vote.
Drones - 3

[ ] Scouting (Pick a direction.)
With your drone's advanced senses they can easily identify and avoid most dangers and discover mineral deposits or other interesting things. While minerals can be just about anywhere, they're more accessible in certain terrain types. 30-90% chance of success in finding a vein, 1% chance of immense success (+4 on quality roll up to max quality), vein quality (max supported miners) determined by 1d8. 10-50% chance of fighting monsters.

[ ] Gathering
Drones are capable of felling entire trees and dragging them back to the Hatchery. They aren't worth a hundred dedicated gatherers on their own, but they're a lot closer than you'd think. +0.5 Resources.

Militia Priorities: Pick 1 focus for the militia forces. This focus will remain the same in perpetuity unless changed.

[ ] Experiment with Monster Fighting.
The militia encourages its members to try new activities and techniques against monsters. Militia losses in monster attacks increase, but increased chance of discovering a monster's weakness and 1% chance of actually killing a monster every engagement.

[ ] Pest Control
Pests cause disease to spread and lower overall sanitation. Killing vermin and running canines out of camps may not be glorious but it's incredibly useful. Random number of 'Agile Quadruped' bodies added each turn.

[ ] Sentry Duty
So there really isn't any unlawful behavior or outside forces showing up at your metaphorical doorstep... But there could be. Might as well have the Militia get some practice at their role of watchful protectors.

Evolution Options: Spend your points however you desire. These are the projects currently open to you.
Evolution Points - 20

[ ] Evolution Zerg Tenaments (55/100)
Consolidates your human populace, protects them much better, and only costs one resource per thousand individuals to construct.

[ ] Evolution Amphibian Bio-morph (0/100)
Being able to cross water and interact with it can be a huge boon. After all, many interesting bio-morphs occur only in water. You're still going to be limited to the shallows and will be fairly small to start with.

[ ] Evolution Hominid Bio-morph (0/250)
Allows you to build a relatively short but decently powerful two legged unit. Think Infested Gorilla not Dwarf though.

[ ] Evolution Attack Claws (0/50)
Right now your claws are made for digging and working and so forth. These claws are made for ripping your enemy to shreds in the heat of combat.

[ ] Evolution Zerg Tentacles (0/150)
Meant to go on buildings and some units, these use the concept of a tail to create a strong, prehensile construct that can be used for grabbing or for whipping. Add claws to it and it becomes a basic defense mechanism. Excellent for chasing animals away from structures.

[ ] Improved Drones (0/50)
Your drones are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.
 
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[X] Increase Creep
[X] Organize Scouting Parties (Costs 1 RP)
[X] Organize Work Crews

More Creep, get some scouting parties to learn about the area around us, and set up work crews to get more resources.

[X] Scouting (North)
[X] Scouting (West)
[X] Scouting (East)

Let's see if we can find some deposits or other useful things.

[X] Pest Control

This will improve living quality.

[X] Evolution Zerg Tenaments (50/100)

Almost there.
 

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